Historic Structures - Urban Exploration of Historic Properties (original) (raw)

Charles Carroll Public School, Philadelphia Pennsylvania On March 23rd, 1846, the current site of the Charles Carroll Public School was purchased by the Philadelphia School Review Board from Joseph J. Ball and his wife for $7,527.93. The rectangular lot extended from Salmon Street on the east to Edgemont Street to the west, which was an unusually large plot of land for a school during this period. The 3-story, brick building, that was subsequently constructed on the site, faced Salmon Street and contained six classrooms with an open playground to the west. Known as the Richmond School until 1848, the building was renamed after founding father Charles Carroll, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. By the early 1920s, a comprehensive school building survey determined that this buildingMore...

Grand Island North Light Station - Old North Light, Munising Michigan The Old North Light Station, built in 1867, is the oldest in the Pictured Rocks area of Lake Superior and predates the organization of Alger County, in which it stands, as well as the closest town, Munising, established in 1885. The lighthouse and its surrounding buildings present a strikingly original example of a nineteenth-century light station. Never encroached upon by development and never modernized, it still retains its original form and utilizes the same lighting, heating, water, and sanitation systems as when originally constructed. The building retains many features which were installed for functional purposes: internal shafts in the tower for the pendulum of the occulting mechanism, tool closets with original brass fittings, and a massive cast-iron staircase and deck. IlluminatedMore...

Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad Depot, Farmington Minnesota The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad Depot in Farmington is significant as the only major railroad structure remaining in the Dakota County towns that developed as station points. Farmington, like numerous other county towns, was dependent on the railroads for its late 19th-century expansion as a regional commercial center. The town was platted at the intersection of two early lines, the Minnesota Central and the Hastings and Dakota railroads, both of which were absorbed into the growing Milwaukee Road system by the early 1870s. Farmington later became the site of a large freight yard from 1910 to 1921. The combination passenger and freight depot, built in 1894, occupied the site of earlier depots. The structure resembles those built byMore...

Buffalo Public School PS 44 - Lincoln School, Buffalo New York Buffalo Public School #44 (PS 44) is located at 1369 Broadway Street and was constructed in two main stages. Commissioned by the City of Buffalo and the Board of Education, the northeastern portion of the school was designed first by the city's Building Bureau architect, Howard L. Beck, in 1907-1909, and then the remaining portions were subsequently designed by the city's Board of Education architect, Ernest Crimi in 1930. While each part of the building was commissioned and designed by different architects, the overall plans of the building were adapted from standardized plans that were used throughout many schools in Buffalo throughout the early twentieth century. Classroom size, daylight, ventilation, room finishes, heating systems, corridor size, circulation and fireproof construction wereMore...

Point No Point Light Station, Hansville Washington The Point No Point Station, built on a shallow sandspit where Admiralty Inlet curves south to become Puget Sound, stands at the gateway to the port cities of Seattle, Everett, Bremerton, Tacoma, and Olympia. The station and its site are important both functionally and historically. Because of its pivotal position, the light (automated in 1977) is and probably will remain an operational aid to navigation. Since 1975, the station also has been the site of a radar installation (part of the Puget Sound Vessel Traffic Service). The lighthouse and nearby crew quarters, built in 1879, ten years before Washington became a state, still exist as fine examples of the simple, classic designs of their period. The name Point No Point generallyMore...

Blenheim School, Kansas City Missouri Blenheim School at 2411 East 70th Terrace, Kansas City, Jackson County, Missouri was constructed in 1924, with additions in 1927 and 1930. Its character-defining elements include fire-proof concrete and brick construction, wide double-loaded corridors, large windows for fresh air and natural light, an integrated auditorium and gymnasium, and specialized classrooms. Charles A. Smith, architect for the Kansas City School District, designed the three-story red brick Jacobethan Revival school with a symmetrical facade and ornate cut stone trim. The school was built in three phases, as designed by Smith, to accommodate the growing population in the area. Specialized classrooms were important components of the diverse Progressive Era curriculum designed to promote learning by doing and to provide direct access to informational sources.More...

Clara T. O'Connell School, Bristol Connecticut The Park Street School/Clara T. O'Connell Elementary School was built in 1914, with several additions, the last completed in 1960. Located at 122 Park Street, the O'Connell School marks the point of transition in Bristol's history when industrial growth resulted in rapid population increases and the need to replace wood-frame district schoolhouses with well-lit, well-ventilated, sanitation-equipped, fire-proof buildings. At the time of its construction in 1914, the Park Street School was extolled as one of Bristol's best examples of a modern educational building. Thanks to the tenets of the Progressive Movement, which spanned a period from roughly 1890 to 1930, the nation's public schools were increasingly idealized as an egalitarian institution in which all children might develop both their minds andMore...